Teens Don’t Trust Banks. Is That a Problem?

By Kelli B. Grant

iStockphoto

American teens may be letting fear shape their financial decisions, a development researchers say could lead to a generation of adults who don’t open bank accounts or save for retirement. We’re not so sure.

High school students are overwhelmingly distrustful of banks, credit card issuers and other financial institutions, according to a survey released Thursday from the University of Arizona’s Take Charge America Institute, which creates financial literacy programs in partnership with non-profit credit counseling firm Take Charge America, and consulting firm The Financial Literacy Group. More than 70% said they believe businesses try to trick young people into spending more than they should, and 60% said they think credit card issuers entice people into taking on more debt than they can handle. A whopping 83% think banks are “mostly interested in getting my money through hidden fees.”

It’s not entirely surprising that teens have developed such attitudes. “If you’re in the teen years where you may first be awakening to the idea of financial concepts, you may have seen a lot of very ugly business during these formative years,” says Ruth Susswein, the deputy director of national priorities for Consumer Action, an advocacy group. The problem, says Dan Iannicola, Jr., chief executive of The Financial Literacy Group, is that the knowledge is secondhand, which coupled with students’ lack of financial know-how may have long-term effects on how they manage money.

“What’s the boundary between a healthy skepticism of those markets and a debilitating cynicism?” asks Michael Staten, the director of the Take Charge America Institute. OK, so teens probably aren’t going to revert to stuffing cash under the mattress, but they might opt for lesser-known — and riskier — banks to avoid those they perceive as fee-hungry, put off saving for retirement or avoid investing altogether. (In the survey, 75% said they think the stock market is “rigged” to favor the bankers.) “We want them to be fact-based, not fear-based,” says Iannicola.

But Iannicola and Staten do say that it’s a little early to judge the full impact of the survey results. The survey was conducted among teens enrolled in a financial literacy course before any material was taught, and those students will be polled again after completion. The questions were also phrased to be a provoking, with students asked to only to agree or disagree — which doesn’t mean they don’t have more nuanced opinions. After all, plenty of adults would also agree that credit cards entice you to spend beyond your means, but that doesn’t stop them from having four, on average.

In fact, having an awareness of all the tricky fees — or even just that financial institutions have their own agenda — could help students make smarter financial choices when it comes to picking a bank account or using credit cards. “I think it makes sense when you’re borrowing money and you’re new to this whole process that you go in with many questions and you get them answered before you take that step,” Susswein says. In 2009, the average college senior graduated with $4,100 in credit card debt, according to lender Sallie Mae. Although recent legislation has limited access to credit for those younger than age 21, and issuers’ ability to market to them on campus, it’s still all too easy for young adults to fall into debt. “If in fact majority of teens have healthy skepticism, then they may be on the right path,” she says.

Comments (4 of 4)

i think you are giving this coiiodmtmes permabull and conspiracy theorist too much credit.he’ll get mauled when the cycle shifts. guys like him are always yelling “gold $10,000″ right at the top. Actually, he got out of gold before the top in 1980 and argued that it would be in a 15 year bear market. He got back into the metals in the late 1990s and has been positive since. My problem with him is not about the secular trend. It is because he encourages far too much trading even though he knows that most people are not capable of controlling their emotions.

3:37 am June 8, 2012

maresti wrote:

Yeah. Like it’s just the teens who don’t trust banks. Get real. No one who has an iq over 100 trusts banks.

2:03 pm June 29, 2011

Chetdude wrote:

Banks and the Ponzi-Scheme laughingly called an “economy” is the problem. That teens see through the Foma and smoke screen of the liars and banksters is a wonderful development…

10:16 am June 29, 2011

krylenko wrote:

“We want them to be fact-based, not fear-based.”

Given the economic events of the last three years, I’d say their fears *are* fact-based.

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